development of friendships and peer groups Flashcards
Research methods
Observation
Peer (sociometric) nominations
- measure how much liked/ disliked by others
- Reciprocal nominations
- Children can be neglected, popular, controversial, rejected or average.
Rating scales such as sociometric ratings and friendship rating qualities
5 types of children
popular: good social skills, not typically agressive, begin using more relational aggression in adolescence
Rejected: aggressive rejected (40-50%) OR withdrawn (10-25%) shy and timid - likely isolated. More likely to interpret situations as intentional and have difficulty finding solutions to social situations.
Neglected: less social and disruptive than average, but not feel isolated
Controversial: have characteristics of both rejected and popular kids. They are socially active and often group leaders
Average children: 2/3rds fit above categories and others into here, with no extreme scores.
Friendships impact on social- cognitive development
Children are typically of the same age and therefore equal in perceived power.
Piaget: peers are useful in the construction of one’s own explanations and rules of how things work.
- Cognitive disagreement would lead peers to be aware of and explore differing perspectives on a problem
Vygotsky: cooperation in relationships is useful in the construction of skills and abilities.
- ZPD: adults and peers as tutors/ scaffolding
Sullivan: peers are important for emotional development as they are first intimate relationships outside family and basis for future relationships
Time line of friendship development (Selman 1981)
3-7 yrs:
Playmates, intimacy refers to physical location.
Conflicts arise over toys and space
4-9 yrs:
one-way friendships , exist because fulfil some function the self wants.
A close friend is someone who you know the likes/dislikes of.
6-12yrs:
able to reflect on joint experiences.
Concerned with coordination and approximating likes/dislikes, understand people have differing perspectives and this is OK.
Fairweather friendship: can end over disagreement
9-15yrs:
Can have intimate and mutually shared relationship
Have mutual understandings and concerns and share personal problems
Emphasis on 2 person friendships
12+
Accepts independence and dependence
3 factors children select friends based on
Proximity: young children have friends who are close in proximity but older children accept more distance
Same age: early and middle child
Similarity: Young children like similarity of location or features
Older children select similarity on basis of personality, common interests and attitudes
Liberman and shaw 2019
Explores children: 3-5, 6-8 and 9-11 yrs understanding of what indicated friendship.
3-5: proximity is more indicative than similarity. As well as loyalty (when sharing) being important. Do not differentiate in type of propinquity. Propinquity is more indicative than loyalty (playing together over taking sides and sharing)
6-8 and 9-11: equally believed loyalty and play indicate friendship. Both believed propinquity and loyalty was more important than gender similarity.
All believed friends more likely to be same gender
Howes et al on infants peer preference
12-19 months: more smiling, reaching and touching specific peers
12-24 months: 3x more likely to comfort preferred peers.
20 months: selectively initiate interactions and play with some peers over others
Reciprocated friendships appear in early childhood and mixed-sex friendships become more segregated and they are more likely to resolve conflict with same sex. Some peers are viewed as more dominant and this is seen in conflict
Friendship and sex/gender
Segregation occurs early on
- Infants prefer looking at same sex images
- At 2ys, boys are more likely to respond when a boy asks to play than a girl
-Childhood around 90% of peer time spent with same sex
- Adolescence, preference for same sex interaction declines.
Cross-sex friendships do exist (McDougall and Hymel 2007) and 81% of 9-18 yr olds agree
Friendship and ethnicity
Leman and Lamm 2008:
Minority children tend to be more accepting of cross- race friendships.
Hamm 200:
80% of african and european americans, 60% of asian americans had a best friend from the same ethnic background.
Racial/ ethnic homophily is one of the strongest indicators of friendships
Lease and blake 2005:
10-12yrs from either majority black or white schools.
-Majority children with minority friends were perceived as smarter, better leadership skills and confidence and better listening skills than those without minority friend.
- Majority white boys friends with black boys had better athletic skills
- 45% of london adolescents are not white
Bagci et al 2014:
- only 3% of 11yr olds in london reported not having cross-ethnic friendships. and 9% had no same ethnic friendships
- White european children reported higher same-ethnic friendships in comparison to other ethnicities
- When class diversity weas higher, white europeans reported higher quality cross- ethnic friendships.
Findings supported by Bohman and Miklikowska and 2011 with 13 year old in sweden. Classroom diversity associated with higher number of cross-ethnic friendships
interaction differences between friends and non-friends
With friends: better cooperation and coordination, resolving of conflict in a controlled way.
11-15 years: friends more similar in behaviours and reported similar depression levels.
Girls- similar in cooperation, offering help and liked most nominations
boys- shyness and victimisation nominations.
Poulin et al 1997: aggressive children are more likely to hang out together
Adolescence: similar attitudes to school and achievement
- Normative behaviours smoking drinking, drug use and anti social behaviour similar
- What is normative varies by sex and Ethnicity.
Lee et al 2007 do friendship groups differ between gender?
Longitudinal desgin:
- girls had larger social network and networks were more ethnically diverse.
- 62% of girls and 54% of boys reciprocated friendships were cross-ethnic.
- girls more sensitive to pro-social issues.
-Sex appears to be more important than ethnicity ad same sex more prevalent than same ethnicity
Cliques
Middle childhood: 3-9 yrs children are only stable for a few weeks (cairns et al 1995). Cliques give a sense of belonging and validation
Adolescence: greater stability, can be part of multiple. important to conform to group dress and behaviour to avoid being ridiculed, greater value in younger adolescence
Parental role in child’s peer relations:
Attachment style:
- secure children display emotions and have strong social skills as they understand what relationships should like, more confident and happy, emotionally understanding
-Insecure: more aggressive and socially withdrawn
Parent beliefs:
- Do they discuss different social event? like how to deal with conflict and making friends. Do they model behaviour as children will try to mirror. Do they think and accept how the child is or try to modify behaviour:
Marini, Fairbairn and Zuber 2001 on types of aggression and modes of attack
Modes of attack: direct/indirect
Types of aggression: behavioural/instrumental , psychological/relational
Direct+ behavioural/instrumental= physical kicking punching etc
Direct + psychological/ relational=
cognitive, teasing, insulting, threatening
Indirect + behavioural/instrumental= social, involving groups and gangs, daring, instigating, ordering attacks.
Indirect + psychological/ relational= emotional, spreading rumours, ostracizing and excluding.
-60% of bullied girls and 80% of bullied boys were bullied by boys.
up to 33% of children are bullied.
Bullies traits
More positive attitudes towards aggressive behaviours, more social and conduct problems.
They are impulsive and feel need to dominate with little empathy for victims (Kljakovic and Hunt 2016)
Whereas victims have more internalised problems (low self-esteem, anxiety, struggle adjusting to school)
Bukowski et al 1995: children with reciprocated friendships less likely to be victimised.
Hodges et al 1999 having a best friend decreases victimisations
But too much time spent with best friends can lead to internalising problems when bullied
